Cheers Art Frames/Peter
If the weather report for Oxford is like that for Salisbury then I'd probably leave it until midday - mind you the weather reports have been unduly pessimistic recently so the best way is too look out the window and go if it looks good
Browns
28 Specked Wood, 06-05-2016 Vera Jones Mill
I think the Specklies round my way had a bit of a ‘down and up’ year. I saw my first one a fortnight later than last – this time at Vera Jones’s Mill and I wasn’t able to get a photo. After this the rest of the first brood proved to be just as hard to either track down or photograph. The cold March and April didn’t help this I think as perhaps they had started to emerge but were knocked back?
After this I had much better success and they seemed to have come on much stronger, were in all the usual haunts and also lasted well into September and possibly through into October – though I can only speculate on this from my observations of freshly emerged individuals in the second week of September. Their greater success in later broods is further supported by finding one at Larkhill during my final visit there of the season, a bit of a rarity at this site!
29 Wall, 05-06-2016 Lulworth
If the Small Pearl was a catastrophe then the Wall Brown was only just shy of an un-mitigating disaster! I missed them at my Marshire site, usually a sure thing, on both occasions that I visited. Likewise they were absent from my Duke site and were non-existent on any of my trips to the coast when I visited the Outlaws (again another sure thing). I only saw one all year, a fleeting view of one taking off from a wall, it flew past me and disappeared at Lulworth. That was it. The dearth of this species could have a number of reasons; the further contraction of its range, it’s put too much into a risky third brood in 2015, or the weather are among a few off the top of my head. That being said there was a plus pint; 25 were recorded on one visit by a lucky blighter to Morgan’s Hill. Perhaps the usual crew that frequented my Marshie site up moved North? Fingers crossed that was the reason…
30 Marbled White, 21-06-2016 Larkhill
This species was about a week later this year but as I saw them further North in Wiltshire I don’t know if this portrays any pattern? I must confess to be at a loss when it comes to considering this species. After my first I found them in all the expected places and in such numbers that at times I didn’t even give them more than the cursory glance only noting their presence which I’m embarrassed to admit. The one site which I did record numbers from was Larkhill, where I saw my first this year and they seem to be roughly on a par with last year.
31 Grayling, 23-07-2016 Godshill
By the time the first Graylings were on the scene things had really settled down and we were looking ahead to more a more productive summer some species had caught up from the slow start to the season yet the Grayling were still 5 days behind. It certainly felt that way as Godshill presented me with reasonable numbers of Grayling perhaps not as many as last year but still good numbers. I missed out on any chance to corroborate this feeling as I didn’t make it back home to Dorset this year during their flight. Again as last year I was struck by their variability as this year I found two individuals from the extreme ends of the scale. One was honey coloured and the other, sitting nicely on a cowpat was almost jet black. It would be interesting to see if females showed any preference for a colour type, a form of sexual selection, or whether mating choice is purely based on chemical attraction?
32 Hedge Brown/Gatekeeper 17-07-2016 Bentley Wood
Almost a fortnight later this year and my first came from Bentley Wood. Now when this has happened in the past I’ve then gone on to find His Nibbs as well, and so the pattern continued this year as well. It’s difficult to make an overall estimate of how well this species fared as there seemed to be so much regional variation. I would guess overall that they were down – they certainly were at The Devenish, Larkhill and Bentley Wood. However the The Lane (Ffos-y-ffin) was absolutely jam packed with them during my annual summer visit to my Outlaws. Those present were also well represented by the ‘excessa’ with two particularly heavily marked individuals, one form each gender and also in opposite states of repair. I don’t know why this little area seems to produce so many excessa – whether it’s to be expected as others have reported their prevalence further North or because it’s an small, semi-isolated population? Whatever I’m just pleased that they appear to be doing so well somewhere.
33 Meadow Brown, 18-05-2016 The Devenish
This species really became the prime ‘bucker’ of trends this year. First up it was almost a month early. I had to wait until the second week of June last year before finding one at East Blean (it was one of only three species seen on that day!). And so it continued when it came to numbers as they did well this year, definitely on the increase in my neck of the woods at least.
34 Small Heath, 14-05-2016 Duke Site
I found my first Small Heath at roughly the same time this year but at my Duke Site further North in the county. For a number of years now I and others have been bemoaning the decline of the Small Heath and so it continues this year with them still on a downward trajectory. When will their fall top?
35 Ringlet, 21-06-2016 Larkhill
Only a day earlier this year but unusually I saw them on the same day as my first Marbled White. Normally this species is around at the same time but often a few days to a week later. This year I got a nice little ‘twofer’ at Larkhill which suitably set me up for the day. I feel that the Ringlets had a very good year particularly at Larkhill where the highlight of the year for me for this species came when I made an early morning stop-off. As I crossed the road and started down the small track I caught sight of something dark brown in the bushes, a Ringlet and I could soon see another, and another and so on until eventually I counted over 20 just sitting in the same bush. I really struggled to get even a quarter of them in a single shot. Over the season they provided more great moments – great shots of the underside, odd numbers of spots, huge spots on the underside and the endless times they would erupt from the path as my dew drenched trouser legs scythed through the long grasses but this was the best Ringlet moment of 2017.
Have a goodun
Wurzel
I did manage to see a Peacock but it didn't stop for any photos 
Cheers Bugboy 
